Little Differences

Posted at October 10, 2011 // Oz

It’s very possible that some movie critics would call the Royale with Cheese scene in Pulp Fiction iconic. For those who haven’t seen the movie, Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta) and Jules (played by Samuel Jackson) play two modern day gangsters off to do some bad guy stuff when they engage in some small talk about Vincent’s recent trip to Europe. He starts off by talking about the “little differences” in Amsterdam.

Similarly, Australia has some fun little differences I noticed in my short time here thus far.

For those Aussie friends and colleagues that are reading this, please indulge this newbie to Australia in reporting to folks back home. I was presented with many of these differences when I went shopping for roast ingredients recently.

Shopping Hours – Most malls and shops are open till 9pm in the US. Not so in the Sydney area. With the exception of Thursday, the stores will close at 5:30pm or 6pm. Grocery stores are open a bit later and stores like Kmart are open 24 hours. Now, call me a capitalistic American, but it might be that the retailers are leaving a bit of money on the table…then again, they may not care.

LiquorLand – The two main grocery stores here are Coles and Woolworth’s (Woolie’s for short). Both supermarkets have side liquor businesses known as LiquorLand and Dan Murphy’s respectively. Now, I’m from Texas where liquor is kept in liquor stores and are only open 10 to 9 Monday through Saturday. This was a little bizarre to me, but maybe not for my friends in California.

Hungry Jack – This is Burger King. Apparently the company didn’t want to call themselves “Burger King” in Australia because of a “Burger Queen” chain that was here in the past. KFC is here and McDonald’s too (no Royale with Cheese though).

Cell Phones – This is a bit of madness. There are cell phone stores everywhere. In the Hornsby shopping centre (Westfield) there are *twelve* cell phone shops (not including grocery stores that also sell mobile phones). You can get a pre-paid plan (which is easiest for me) or you can get a contract similar to the US…but what you get for it is a little confusing. You get a “cap” that is expressed in dollars (e.g., $300 per month) where your phone calls and texts are drawn from. To make things a little more confusing, some plans offer free unlimited texts and free unlimited visits to Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace (among others). The consumer friendly part is that they tell you the total cost of the phone over the length of the contract. An iPhone might cost you $1200 before it’s all said and done.

Coffee – A co-worker sneered at my Starbucks mug. Apparently (in spite of the Starbucks presence in Sydney), a “tall black” (think Cafe Americano) is preferred over the offering from my country’s Seattle. I like the “tall blacks” but I can’t drink as many of them. I’m starting to acquire a taste for tea.

Beer – It’s quite expensive here…even the stuff they brew here. If it’s “imported” (which means it’s better, right?) it’s even more expensive. Budwiser is $16 a six-pack. Just think about that for a minute.

I’m sure there will be more of these…this is just what I came up with on a train ride one morning.

I’m alive and doing fine down under. Take care up there.